Bundheš Narratives as Dialectical Context for Metaphors in Šāhnāma

When the heroic and mythical parts of Šāhnāma are compared with some historical facts and eternal events, there emerges an exact and accurate correspondence. One of the subjects that has been neglected in the studies related to Šāhnāma is the examination of the correspondence between heavenly and eternal events described in book of Bundheš and the events of heroic essence; the impact of those mythical motifs on Ferdowsi and its reflection in metaphorical language of Šāhnāma have been disregarded as well. The present study establishes that the correspondence is a grand metaphor by itself which looks at the dialectic context for the emergence of metaphor. For this aim, Derrida’s dialectic theory was employed to reexamine the concept of metaphor in Šāhnāma. The results show that along with rhetorical and emotive metaphors, there are others emerging from mythological origins and representing ideas reflected in Bundheš, all of which could be remembered as referential and cultural metaphors.